The Crystal Palace
by Harkpad
Summary: Ianto finds Jack's curiously labeled music collection and then forgets about it. One night, later, he interrupts as Jack reminisces by himself, and Jack gives an explanation of the labels and tells Ianto about his first concert on Earth. Not a song fic.


**A/N: The Crystal Palace and the concert Jack mentions were real. I like to imagine Jack being there soon after his arrival from the game station.**

One day, while cleaning Jack's office and trying to find a place for a few unable-to-categorize things from Jack's mess, Ianto found a drawer full of CDs and a cabinet shelf stacked with LP records. He didn't look too closely at first, after all everyone has a music collection, but as he stacked some things around the records, he noticed they were labeled. Small, white labels were in the corner of each record written in Jack's classical handwriting with the old-fashioned loop to it, and one or two words on each label.

He found one record labeled "First Song" and another labeled "Mary" and another labeled "HER Favourite" and another labeled "Jacob's Song" and on and on like that as Ianto thumbed through the stack. He looked at the CD cases and most of them had labels too, with people, places, dates, or words written on them. He meant to ask Jack about it but a Rift alert came in and everyone got distracted and music got pushed to the background and then too much happened.

Later, much later and after the end they started from, Ianto left the Hub to go have dinner with his sister. Gwen went home to Rhys, and Jack stayed at the Hub to keep an eye on things. Ianto promised to come back later, but Jack, looking worn down and pensive, shrugged and said he'd be okay on his own. It wasn't a dismissal, just a reminder that on his own was something Jack was used to being. Sometimes Ianto forgot.

Ianto left his sister after a couple of hours and a bottle of wine, and instead of heading back to his flat he decided to check in and see how Jack was faring. He pulled his denim jacket collar around his bare neck but he was still cold, and he walked briskly into the Hub, anticipating the warmth of it. He wasn't anticipating the sound of it.

The cog door closed behind him and he wondered if Jack could even hear the alarm. The sound of a symphony permeated the Hub and seemed to fill Ianto's chest with music until his ribs hurt. The strings tugged at the water lapping around the base of the tower, the horns pounded the grating up above Ianto's head, and the woodwinds bathed the computers and desks with a torrent of beauty.

If Jack heard the cog door, then he certainly didn't make it known or come down the steps from his office to greet Ianto, and for a few moments Ianto just stood at the entrance, letting the music wash over his head and wrap his body in its harmonies.

His curiosity needled him out of his trance, though, and so he slowly made his way up the stairs to Jack's office, noting how the music changed as he went up each step. The office was empty and only lit by the soft light of the lamp on the desk, but Jack's crystal decanter of Scotch sat in the light shimmering in the middle of the desk, and several glasses were missing from the tray. The music was louder here, and filled the office and rattled the lamp.

Ianto made his way back out to the grated metal walkway outside the office and finally saw Jack on the floor, braces pulled off of his shoulders and brushing the ground. He was sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of the walkway, one arm draped lazily over the railing, and the glassful of Scotch in his hand looking like any second it might fall and shatter on the floor below. He was staring at the water running down the glittering side of the tower, and the other two glasses from the tray in the office were sitting on the walkway next to Jack, one filled with Scotch and the other with just a film of Scotch lining the bottom of the crystal glass.

Several of the LPs and CDs from Jack's collection were strewn on the floor around him.

Ianto didn't say anything, not that Jack would have heard him anyway, but just walked carefully over and sat down next to him, pushing one of the LPs carefully out of his way, also dangling his legs over the edge. Jack slowly pulled his gaze from the tower to Ianto and then wordlessly picked up the full glass and handed it to him before turning his gaze back to the waterfall and sipping his own drink.

Ianto took the glass and took a sip, turning his own eyes to the water spilling down over the tower in front of them. The music played on through its climax and finally fell to a whisper and then away. Jack was still quiet, drinking and watching the water cascade down in front of him. Ianto waited patiently.

After a long silence, Jack said, "Mozart. 'E-Flat Concerto for Two Pianos.'"

Ianto just nodded and then offered, "It's gorgeous." And then he noticed the CD case sitting close by and so he picked it up. It was labeled like so many of the others he had found what seemed so long ago, in Jack's beautiful handwriting. It read, 'Crystal Palace, My First." He didn't want to pry, really he didn't, and so he sat patiently, sipping his drink. Finally, Jack pushed the empty glass on the floor between them out of the way and moved closer to Ianto, gently taking the CD case from his hands and looking at the label.

Jack stated, "The Crystal Palace was built ten years before I arrived on Earth. It was avant-garde and massive. The people here had never seen that much glass in one building, and had never been in a building where lighting wasn't required. I remember going in the first time I was there and watching as people stood with their hands on the glass, just looking up at the clouds above them in awe. I asked the woman I was with why they were doing that and she laughed, saying, 'well where else can you see the clouds while you're inside?'"

Jack chuckled into his glass at that, and continued, "We were there to hear a concert by two famous pianists. They were playing this Mozart concerto." He held up the CD case again and took another drink, leaning into Ianto's shoulder, "I had never heard a _real_ piano played before. I had heard of Mozart, and I knew some of his pieces, but to hear it live? On the original instruments it was written for? That was completely new. It was my first concert on Earth, my first _year_ on Earth, and it was Mozart played on real pianos and surrounded by glass and clouds."

And then after a few minutes he held up the crystal glass in his hand. "Good crystal is amazing. It's sturdy in your hand and lends weight to whatever you're drinking. The way the light reflects as your drink diminishes adds a dimension to whatever you're drinking. This is good Scotch, but it's even better in this crystal glass. Sometimes whatever is holding something else enhances it."

He paused to sip some more and stole a sidelong glance at Ianto. "I remember sitting in the audience, staring up through the glass ceiling at those clouds and hearing these notes being played on these instruments that I'd never seen before under glass that was new and exciting to everyone around me, and I knew at that moment that if I spent my time I had to spend here trying to be like the crystal around me, I _could_ endure."

After a moment, Ianto asked, "Why?"

Jack sighed, took another sip of his Scotch, and whispered, "Because the music was exquisite and the crystal exalted it."


End file.
